Character Design Hero and Sidekick Busts
As part of our Semester Two in Third Year in college we were given a brief to design two characters; a hero and a sidekick. These designs would then be created physically into two busts using fimo clay which would then be eventually painted. We were to base our characters on ourselves and a person we either knew or a celebrity. I decided to go with my little brother and myself as the two characters 'The Don' and 'The Pawn' respectively.
Firstly I took to film and animation to see famous heroes, sidekicks, and partners in crime to draw inspiration from. This was part of my research for the brief.
The Research
Before I settled on the idea and look of my two characters I went through a series of designs and ideas. These are some of the drawings I came up with while deciding on my characters design.
I originally had the idea of having two brothers as a pair of gladiators fighting side by side but didn't go through the idea in the end. I had even considered at one stage having the characters 'Mommy' and 'Mommy's Boy' as hero and sidekick respectively but this idea didn't even make it to the designing stage. I would like to explore it in my own personal work though.
I finally settled on the idea of having two characters involved with the Italian Mafia. From this, 'The Don' and 'The Pawn' came about.
For 'The Don' I took photographs of my brother and then done some life drawing for reference material for his character. As for 'The Pawn' I simply used a mirror to do some life drawing and used a photo for reference material.
Above are some of the photos I took and below are some of the drawings I sketched.
Similarly for 'The Pawn' these are some of the drawings and photos.
Along with all of this reference material I had already obtained from pop culture to personal material, I wanted definitive characters to take from also.
For 'The Don's appearance I took from Joe Pesci's character in 'Goodfellas'. As for his clothes I took inspiration from an appearance Frank Sinatra made on the Johnny Carson show with Don Rickles.
'The Pawn' takes Michael Imperioli's character's clothes from 'The Sopranos' and Rust Cohle's appearance from 'True Detective'.
From here I got to work on the fimo. I started with a board, nuts, bolts and washers for each character to create a stilt for each. From here I created a rough body shape from tinfoil which was then wrapped tight with thin wire to hold it's shape and prevent it from deforming when applying fimo.
After they were finished and ready they were baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 110°. Later once cooled I painted them with acrylics and created accessories such as the golden glasses and rose.
For the frame of the glasses I simply created it by bending thin wire into the shape I wanted and painted it gold. The lenses were created from a plano lense (no prescription) which I obtained from the opticians I work part-time at. I drew the shape of the frame onto the lense, roughly cut it and sanded each down until it fit the frame snug. These were then glued to the frame by their tops. The rose was made from red paper by cutting little squares from the paper and creating twisted little segments which were later stuck together and into each other.
This is the final result of my project. I am very happy with how they came out.
Complete Busts
Story
The Don has always been a trusted hero in Sicily. He has always provided security to the people of Sicily; all the people who pay his fee.
The people of Sicily may know the Don as the main face of the Mafia but who they might not know is his second hand man the Pawn. They might however know of his impact on Sicily; because even though the Don is seen and feared by all, his sidekick the Pawn does in fact do all his dirty work.
*The story for these two characters might not be of the common superhero and sidekick, but I have never enjoyed sticking to common ground and the norm.*
What I learned from this brief
Previously for another college brief I worked with clay so I had some experience coming into this one, yet still was struck by a few things.
After creating 'The Don's body from tinfoil and applying the fimo I decided to completely rip apart the bust as it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. This was something that did slightly put me behind but I managed to come back from it. It showed me that it is okay to start fresh if the time is available.
When using the fimo it is good to somewhat heat the material to more easily sculpt and form it with your fingers as the consistency is a lot harder than regular clay. Along with this, fimo snaps and tears apart when too much pressure is applied when sculpting. I learned to carefully join pieces together by notching or poking the ends of each piece and then blending them together by carefully smoothing them out into one connected piece.
Having a model sheet for the busts to work off of is extremely important and undeniably beneficial.
I enjoyed bringing a piece of my part-time job into this brief with the lense I used for 'The Pawn's' character and has shown me to look towards different places for materials in the future as some very interesting combinations can be made.
Conclusion
I feel a lot more confident in my ability with fimo and painting busts. I thoroughly enjoyed this brief and proved to myself I enjoy working with my hands more so than anything else. Character design and storytelling has also been proven to me as my favourite places to work within.
